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Tip: Sync Facebook friends with Mac contacts

Question: I set up my Mac to sync my contacts with my Facebook friends. That's great, but why can't I edit any of those contacts? Answer: Apple has a different definition of the word "synchronize" than you.

Question: I set up my Mac to sync my contacts with my Facebook friends. That's great, but why can't I edit any of those contacts?

Answer: Apple has a different definition of the word "synchronize" than you. "Stamp" would be a better verb for the feature it added to its Mountain Lion operating system in this fall's 10.8.2 update: That is, you can't edit information that comes down from Facebook.

Mountain Lion's Contacts app makes this reasonably obvious if you open a contact you hadn't added yourself: After clicking the "Edit" button, its text appears grayed out, the traditional way to tell the user "you can't edit this," with no minus-sign buttons to delete any of these fields.

But when you merge Facebook records with existing contacts by selecting the two and choosing "Link Selected Cards" from the Contacts app's Card menu, things get confusing.

When you edit one of these linked contacts, it should identify Facebook-sourced data with a little blue "f" logo and grayed-out text. But it doesn't always. I've seen it show the address a friend added to a Facebook profile twice, with the second instance appearing as a normal, editable contact.

But when I tried to edit that record to complete her street address, Contacts allowed me to add that information but then undid my changes when I closed out of the listing.

The only way to avoid it seems to be to create a separate field; if a friend includes a vague or misleading address on a Facebook profile, ignore it and add a new address record with the correct information.

Apple didn't say if keeping Facebook address data sacrosanct was a condition it had to accept to add this "synchronization" feature. But Microsoft's Windows Phone software imposes the same restriction.

The latter, however, is clearer about this condition. Attempting to edit a Facebook-linked contact yields a notice: "You can't change Facebook contact info on your phone, but you can add details that will appear on this contact's card."

For years, I've wanted to see my address book learn from Facebook, but now that I've seen that concept in action I'm thinking of turning off this link. (Also: Sorry for not catching this issue in my own review.) It's turned out to be more work than I thought —especially since so many Facebook friends are intentionally vague about their home address, often citing just the nearest large city.

Plus, there are all of the acquaintances I've added but aren't that personally close to — which Mountain Lion doesn't let me filter out when I connect my Facebook account. I suppose I could systematically unfriend people until I was left with a core contingent of reasonably close pals. And then I might have something like my contacts list as it stood before I started all this.

Tip: Figure out Facebook's new privacy settings

By the time you read this, your account should have Facebook's new privacy interface — the latest in an increasingly long series. This version gets one thing right: It cuts down on the number of steps you have to take to check your exposure on the service.

To access it, click the lock icon to the right of your name in the upper-right corner of the screen. That will produce a menu with quick access to the settings that govern who can see your updates, who can contact you and who can send you friend requests.

The most helpful part of it may be its link, under the "Who can see my stuff?" category, to see how other people can view your Timeline; before, you had to burrow into your privacy settings to check that. It's also easier to regulate who can send you messages on the service — click the new menu's "Who can contact me" heading. But I wish that section had an option to filter out messages not sent to you individually, as opposed to you and two dozen mutual acquaintances.